Episode 2: How to fast track your graduate career

the hospitality industry is a thriving place for graduates in this podcast graduates in hospitality with hilton we gather together graduates and alumni from across the region to share their experiences and advice all to help you get ready for your graduate career and to decide if hospitality is right for you in this episode shannon guillermo and toby are at conrad london they talk about what it means to have a fast track career and share their experiences on a fast track program here at hilton so let's get started so i'm our graduate program is one of multiple graduate programs that we've got within hilton what sort of characteristics do you think someone needs to sort of excel on a graduate program i don't think that the first element you need to have is like being eager to learn um i mean there are many many graduate programs available as you said and uh yeah i mean if you if you were not uh successful for one of them doesn't mean that you don't you don't have any others to apply for uh i think there are many transferable skills between them so uh yeah just eager to learn be be open um me myself when i've completed my degree didn't really know what i wanted to specialize on so there are lots of options and just by taking one doesn't mean that you are just on that role forever but yeah just be determined complete the program and then you can just have a better knowledge of the program and then you can know a little what you want to do in the in the future yeah definitely i think you do have to be quite driven and focused because obviously as with any fast track program when you're learning such an immense amount in such a short period of time you have to kind of be dedicated to actually what you are working towards so i would say you do have to be goal driven as well because when you can see exactly where you do want to end up you have got that motivation in terms of getting there because for us for example there's a lot of training and that's with a lot of graduate programs things that might take others years to learn you learn in just a matter of months so you would definitely have to be quite focused and also your resilience as well because sometimes it can be a lot but at the end of the day it's worth it so it's just having the ability to remember that i think as well he mentioned there about sort of having to do a lot within the a couple of months rather than taking years that it would be if it was entry level do you think that that's quite intense how does it feel workload wise i think for me personally it definitely was intense but that is not necessarily a bad thing so we got told right at the start personally for our program that there would be a lot of training just in terms of obviously you applied for a fast track program you know that you want to get through it quickly so with that comes you need to know a lot of knowledge but one of the things that we were emphasized on in terms of training was you're not going to remember everything it's just taking as much as you can so they do put a lot of emphasis on training when you're doing fast track programs because obviously they expect you to be able to do a lot of things and they're not going to expect you to learn a lot but a lot of it is taught in actually when you're doing the role itself but i think in terms of the training they give you support in training outside of it so yeah with your mentors with your buddies as well okay so you've got a larger sort of support network there to guide you through the program is that so you mentioned training um the support through training is there sort of other touch bases that you have other people to support you yeah from that sense you join obviously you're uh put in a team uh then you've got your manager but other than your manager there's a lot of people who actually supporting you even the team itself you will find yourself in a team which uh um you know with people who has already gone through the graduate program that you have chosen for example so they could have more experience to watch you know what you're feeling what are you doing the pace you're on so uh yeah that really makes sense and then at the beginning as well as you said there's a lot of training involved there's like a training manager as well and you kind of start with a group of people as well uh i think it's really important to have that kind of training as well and i think you mentioned that before like the the learning pace so everyone learns differently so you know even with the people that just starts with the program can't help you out at some point with some skills that you're not really good at so yeah there's a lot of of support even at the beginning i think yeah definitely i think even throughout obviously being on the fast track program for that whole period of time they kind of know you're going to need the support so obviously our program isn't the only one hilton fast track so whether it's us trying to become revenue managers or someone training to a fast track to become a gm they tend to give you a buddy someone who's done it before that you can learn from so if you have questions you can always go back to them because i think with training for me personally sometimes i'd be scrolling through my notes and it's really difficult to find things because you are trying to cram all that information in at once but they do have such a big emphasis on ask the questions that you need find the people you need to talk to and they even give you the contacts and the people that you need to talk to as well i think that really helps you mentioned there about sort of other schemes and the the opportunities trains bgm and other schemes that we have to do with finance and becoming a finance manager what sort of career progression do you think the the fast track element of the scheme provides overall i think just uh well basically shortening the path because i mean we are talking about getting to a position which normally could take somewhere around three to five years whether it's some revenue management or as you said them finance or whatever other department it is i think that's the main thing of the fast track and you also mentioned you they just tried to condense that in a very short amount of time to get you up to the set to the same level as other colleagues with maybe broadened experience so um so yeah that's uh that's the fast track element of it i could say but rather than an entry-level job that could take obviously a bit longer to get to that position yeah i think definitely once you've obviously from what you said where they shorten the actual process it's also once you complete that as well you still got the same opportunity as everyone else whether they came from a different background as you so the fast track program really does help in terms of just being able to get to where you need to go but shortening the time it doesn't really limit you it gives you a lot more opportunities so when it comes to a fast track program people sort of assume that you have to have all the answers in advance and we don't do you no i mean well the last thing you you've got it's everything clear all your ideas clear when you when you finish your your degree right so yeah when when i first started for example i didn't know uh max about it so i did my research obviously before applying for it but yeah that's something that you find out as you as you do it and then you find out that you know for me i was a bit hesitant because we when we first started uh i was thinking that lots of people who was doing the same program will have maybe more experience i did or more knowledge but at some point you kind of uh realize that that's not the case uh hospitality is quite a broad field and there's many people with different backgrounds in here and i think that the programs are very well structured to the point that even though i don't know i don't know i might have some experience in hospitality whereas someone who joins doesn't i think that at some point throughout the program it kind of break even and you are both at the same level so i think that's kind of the main aim of the of the graduate program to get you all to the same level and kind of finish it at the at the same at the same level yeah yeah and i think at the end of the day no one actually has all the answers so even sometimes with me with my buddy she's been here longer than me and sometimes i ask her a question and she won't even know the answer so for me um the type of person i was one of the things i was told in training is that i wasn't asking enough questions my training manager noticed i'd always write my questions down and never asked them because i think i was kind of stuck in my university mentality of go find the answer yourself and they have such a big emphasis on you can ask the questions they do want you to ask the questions because it helps them learn it helps you learn and the whole point of the fast track is that you're getting that information you can't do that without actually asking the questions so yeah i relate to that a lot because i'm the same way i'm always sort of worried about the questions that i asked in case they were like assumed that i should have known it beforehand um but then definitely with the way that the training's sort of set up you can even request four specific topics to be covered i know or training sessions that you like that have felt that you could open up more or ask the right sort of questions you can say okay let's do that again on this topic and they frame the scheme around what the way that you want to learn as well and adapt it um depending on the group of people that they have which is really good exactly i think anyone joining a fast track would have to be someone who is willing to ask the questions and also one thing that i got told is you have to also be willing to get things wrong sometimes which is sometimes they'd ask a question in terms of do you remember this and i'd not answer the question in fear of getting things wrong but it's also i think with everyone when you get something wrong you typically don't get it wrong a second time yeah that's 100% it's what always sticks in your brain right it's what not to do and how to adapt to it and yeah hotels as well are used to that they do it on their their side and we're there to support them but um it's all a learning process for everyone and everyone's trying to get the best results possible across hilton so and no it's really good so going back to sort of the the future steps that can be taken after a graduate program um i know that we're working towards at the moment cluster revenue manager sort of experience um and i've been doing that for the last couple of years um and also seeing quite a lot of people within rmcc move to different areas across the country and i think it's really important to be able to work with people across hilton um so it really just opened the door on that side of things um into other roles um i'm just seeing people go into marketing um who don't have the marketing experience beforehand but from what they've learned through revenue management side of things you gain the skills that you need within hospitality to apply them across other departments um i've seen people from finance come into revenue management um because they've got similar experiences there and there's also opportunities to go back onto property and i think it's really important to be able to do that and i think it's really important Guillermo, you mentioned earlier about potentially the future options going back onto property and having the fast track career will give you a different side of it that then you can come back on and apply it and your skills in a completely different way and I know a lot of people choose to go sort of the commercial revenue the commercial director route manager route all of those doors that might not have been open for them if you haven't gone in through potentially fast track skiing and you yeah as we said we learned to work under pressure in an intense environment which you need in those future roles as well so definitely there's career opportunities within the graduate scheme that you have whether you proceed to sort of senior cluster revenue manager and into the higher end of RMCC but there's also many opportunities outside of our own department. So for anyone who's sort of considering to join a fast track program what sort of advice would you give them? I could say just to to kind of be open because sometimes you're interested on one specific graduate programs but as we mentioned before there are lots of them available so even if you are not accepted or not successful on the one that you originally wanted there are many actually options out there that you might find interesting if you if you take the chance and do it so even if if if you don't if you don't if you're not successful on the one that you originally wanted I would say that just keep trying because there are many other options out there and you might find that maybe something you didn't know anything about you find out that you're actually passionate about. And can build a career on it so yeah and we are very we are focusing a lot on the transfer transferable skills from one to another and that there are you know the possibility to move around other roles so I think it's it's always a good a good opportunity to you know complete one of these graduate programs and it's in the end you don't really want to keep focusing on that career path there are always other other doors open for the future so yeah. I think the one thing I would say is to just apply. I think a lot of the times people get in their own way and thinking they don't have enough experience to apply or I can't do this I think the main thing is just apply because whether it's obviously for us it was I want to become a revenue manager but for some people it could be I want to become an engineer or a general manager just apply it doesn't matter your experience as long as you can show your passion during the interview process and things like that and you can put your best foot forward it's definitely worth it because the worst thing is they say no the best thing is you have an experience. you have an experience that kind of set you up for life so yeah yeah yeah so similar it's about taking risks right and you're never going to grow unless you challenge yourself and a fast track program is the perfect opportunity to do that with an experience you're not going to get if you take an entry level position and the people that you meet as well will be the ones that are challenging you and you learn so much in a short space of time and then yeah future opportunities become endless. So when you sort of look back at your time. Across Hilton and the progression that you've made how does that sort of make you feel when you talk to like family and friends about your time on the graduate program. Well when I first got accepted I got really excited and yeah at this point of the program I think that I really feel proud of myself you know all the heart and the effort that I've put on this you know because it's a bit challenging at times but as you see that it's coming to an end yeah I could say that I feel I feel proud to being able to you know come to an end. And have put the effort on it so yeah I mean yeah really good feeling about it I mean really really positive I don't know how it's been for you but yeah I say the same definitely proud and kind of amazes where you started from to now even within the first few weeks and they did tell us when you look back you'll think like wow and really when you look back I think for there are things I'm dealing with now that I had no clue about and I look now and starting to obviously manage your own portfolio it's just kind of. Amazed where you are and the company you're working for especially being quite young so sometimes I'm talking to my friends and they're in their entry level positions because I think out of all of my friends I'm the only one who went for a fast track role so I'm sitting there talking to family I do just feel really proud and happy in terms of where I am and the job that I'm in as well. Yeah I think that it only grows over time and especially the more experiences you have and the longer within Hilton the more challenges you have and even even talking to. Friends and family you don't necessarily know that the details of the role they can see sort of where you were from when you started versus what you've achieved now and it's hugely rewarding and definitely not something that at least I could have had without the fast track program to get there and a great point about sort of age and what you can achieve at a younger age and then yeah let's see in 10 years time and to where we're all at but no yeah huge achievements all around and how does it feel to be a part of such a famous brand such as Hilton. Yeah I do I do really agree with you I mean yeah you just feel proud of it and yeah when you tell people everyone knows Hilton right so it's a very international brand so yeah you kind of feel feel proud to to tell people that you work at Hilton absolutely. Yeah yeah and I think the first question is okay which which hotels can I stay at where have you been where you traveled what experiences have you had in your life because of the job like what's it allowed you to do and yeah huge amount with Hilton that's possible. Thank you for listening to Graduates in Hospitality. If you enjoyed the conversation we have more episodes for you you can also learn about graduate careers at Hilton via the link in the episode description.